From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- "Military art" can mean the study of combat in a
professional sense; see military science for that
connotation.
Military art is (usually realistic) art that depicts war and military subjects. The works cover a broad
range of subject matter including first hand or historical documentation of battles, memorial art, war protest, and propaganda art.[1].
Military art as an art
historical genre is defined
by subject matter it depicts rather any styles or materials
used.[2]
Early
Representations
The subject of military art can be traced back to classical
times and beyond. Carved reliefs on monuments in Ancient Egypt and
Mesopotamia depict
scenes of battle. In the same way Roman monumental art such as Trajan's
Column in Rome, contain images
of battle, prisoners, and military scenes. The Bayeux Tapestry
is a linear panoramic narrative of the events surrounding the Norman Conquest and the Battle of
Hastings in 1066. Numerous medieval manuscripts include
paintings of battles and sieges. From the later middle ages comes
Uccello's triptych of The Battle of San Romano. In
the mid-to-late 16th century, the French Wars of Religion were
recorded in numerous wood-engraved prints, especially in the series
published by Tortorel and Perrissin. The succeeding century
witnessed numerous conflicts, not least of which was the Thirty Years'
War, and many artists recorded the battles and sieges including
Jacques
Callot, Stefano della Bella, Pieter Snayers,
Philip Wouvermans, and Jacques
Courtois. One event from this conflict, the
surrender of Breda in 1625 was the subject of paintings by Jusepe
Leonardo, and the celebrated canvas by Velázquez.
Formal
Military Art
With the formalization of armies under monarchs such as Louis
XIV, artists were commissioned to paint scenes of battle. Charles Lebrun and Adam Frans van der Meulen
were two notable painters of this period who produced paintings for
the king, as did John
Wootton in Britain. The wars of the period formed suitable
subjects for tapestries such as the series produced for
the Duke
of Marlborough and his generals. The 18th century saw history
painting rise to prominance in Europe, and artists such as Benjamin West and
his American counterparts, John Singleton Copley and John Trumbull among
others, produced epic canvases recording contemporary battles and
sieges. Napoleon encouraged artists to record his
victories, and competitions were held for the best paintings of
certain battles such as Eylau, which resulted in the great
painting by Antoine-Jean Gros. In contrast to
such grand paintings were Goya's sobering scenes of the French in
Madrid in May, 1808, and the ensuing brutality of war.
19th
Century
The wars of the 19th century resulted in numerous paintings and
prints, in particular from mid-century onwards. Elizabeth
Thompson set the tone with her trilogy of paintings depicting
Crimean War, whilst
in France, artists such as Ernest Meissonier, Edouard Detaille, and Alphonse de Neuville
established military art as a reputable genre at the Paris
Salon. The wars of German Unification (1864-1871) furnished
many German painters with suitable subjects, while the Franco-Prussian War saw an
outpouring of paintings by French artists. Interest in military uniforms also manifested itself
during the century, and many prints and portfolios were
published.
20th
Century and beyond
While many depictions of battle were somewhat heroic despite
efforts by artists such as Elizabeth Thompson and Vasily
Vereshchagin to portray the horrors of combat, it took the First World War to really bring out the
truth of modern war, as revealed in the paintings produced by the
official war artists of all the belligerent nations.
The horror of the Western Front was captured by many artists
including Christopher
Nevinson and Otto Dix.
With the peace came the need to memorialise and the result were
countless war memorials. The theme of the brutality
of war, and its impact on civilian populations was revealed in Picasso's
masterpiece of the Spanish Civil War, Guernica. Within two years of its
appearance, the world was at war, and artists accompanied the
armies along with photographers and film crews. War posters
were a common weapon of propaganda in both world wars and beyond.
In the post-1945 era, artists have continued to produce military
art either commorating earlier battles, or recording current
conflicts, but the general trend is to condemn war through art, and
highlight the suffering rather than the heroics.
References
See also
Further
Reading
- Brandon, Laura (2008). Art and War. New York: I.B.
Tauris. ISBN 1845112369
- Carman, W. Y. (2003). The Ackermann military prints:
uniforms of the British and Indian armies, 1840-1855. Atglen,
PA: Schiffer Pub. ISBN 0764316710
- Foot, M. R. D. (Michael Richard Daniel) (1990). Art and
war: twentieth century warfare as depicted by war artists.
London: Headline. ISBN 0747202869
- Hale, John (1990). Artists and Warfare in the
Renaissance. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN
0300048408.
- Harrington, Peter (1993). British Artists and War: The Face
of Battle in Paintings and Prints, 1700-1914. London:
Greenhill. ISBN 1853671576
- Hichberger, J.W.M. (1988). Images of the Army: The Military
in British Art 1815-1914. Manchester: University Press.
- Hodgson, Pat (1977). The War Illustrators. London:
Osprey.
- Johnson, Peter (1978). Front-Line Artists. London:
Cassell.
- Nevill, Ralph (1909). British military prints. London:
The Connoisseur publishing company.
- Paret, Peter (1997). Imagined Battles. Reflections of War
in European Art. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina.
ISBN 0-8078-2356-2
- Prendergast, Christopher (1997). Napoleon and history
painting: Antoine-Jean Gros's La Bataille d'Eylau. Oxford:
Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN
0198174020
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